The Kyle File

First, I must apologize if this violates anyone’s copyrights or anything, but I just found this on the internet and felt I had to do something with it. I use this track solely out of respect, admiration and love of the music.

This started out as an instrumental version of Purple Rain, recorded on a rather old tape in I believe 1984. It’s just a keyboard and strings, and as far as I can tell, I think Prince may actually be playing the keyboard on this recording. If you listen closely at the end, you can hear his voice counting off for the strings to come in, and the strings that play right afterward sound very much like the end of the album and movie version.

It may not be commonly known, but initial versions of Purple Rain had 4 verses, even though only 3 were performed regularly, and only 3 ended up on the movie soundtrack. This track was recorded with 4 verses, though the 3rd verse doesn’t really fit with the post 1999 lyrics that I saw him perform, and that are the more meaningful lyrics to me personally. So with the utmost respect and love, I sang the 3 verses with post 1999 lyrics, and have written a fourth verse from the heart.

Purple Rain (Keyboard and Strings by Prince) 96kbps Opus | q4 Vorbis

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On Thursday, April 21, 2016, God took away from this world the greatest musician and performer who ever blessed us with his gifts and talents. I have heard words like devastated and shocked used to describe the feelings people had when they heard the news, but to this day I have no words that come close enough to describe the great hole left in music by the passing of THE ARTIST, Prince.

Upon hearing the news, I immediately shut down my music page and left only a link to an index of my previously recorded tracks. However, now that I have something worthy of sharing, I have brought the entire page back, with the addition of probably his most well-known song. Special thanks to Ameritz and Google for this amazing version, which is the only full length backing track I could find, and is actually quite close to the version from the movie soundtrack, although I used Prince’s lyrics from just prior to the year 2000 rather than the original 1984 lyrics, as the 2000 lyrics just felt right in this case.

Prince, I hope you can hear this where you are. I’m not even in your musical league, but I do hope I knocked this one out of the park for you. In any case, I did give it all I had to give, so I hope you’re listening, and I hope you like it. There’s more to come.

Purple Rain 96kbps Opus | q4 Vorbis

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I just heard what some would call disturbing news on the radio. Apparently, people like me who support and believe in the Black Lives Matter movement and what it stands for are essentially extremists and paid protesters. Well then I am officially coming forward as an extremist, as I am not getting paid to stand in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and I wholeheartedly support what it represents. When my family has to live in terror because a police officer can shoot or torture one of them to death, then I will wear the extremist title proudly, because #BlackLivesMatter! When my church family has to live in terror because an armed terrorist can enter a place of worship and kill nearly everyone there, and when terrorists can burn up churches in the name of racism, I will wear the extremist title proudly, because #BlackLivesMatter! When my friends have to live in fear because someone who doesn’t even work for law enforcement can shoot them down in the street because they think they shouldn’t be where they are, wearing what they are wearing, I will wear my extremist badge of honor, because Black lives matter! And when someone can set off a bomb in a public place in the name of Alah and be called a terrorist, but someone shooting up a church is simply disturbed or mentally ill, and the shooting is at best called a hate crime, and will never be tried as the federal capital charge of domestic terrorism that it is, then I will wave my extremist flag for all the world to see, because Black lives matter! So if supporting a movement that celebrates the lives of Black people in America is extremism, then I am more than happy to be called an extremist. Go ahead and call me whatever names you like. It won’t change the facts, and to those of you who would say that all lives matter, I guess mine no longer does, because I wholeheartedly support the movement that celebrates and raises awareness of the importance of the lives of my family and my friends, and I know how little extremist lives matter to some. BLACK LIVES MATTER!

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I consider any “pro life movement” that doesn’t acknowledge the need for universal health care to be invalid and just blowing hot air. Anyone who claims to be “pro life” and doesn’t push for universal health care is effectively saying that life begins at conception and ends at birth. For the record, I consider myself to be largely pro life, and because of this, I recognize health care from cradle to grave to be a fundamental human right, although I will also advocate for my own personal right to die if I feel I am becoming a burgen to my family and friends, and there is little hope of sufficiently improving my quality of life to the point where I am no longer such a burden.

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I was extremely happy with the concept of LetsEncrypt and what it represents for the whole of the internet:

Let’s Encrypt is a new Certificate Authority: It’s free, automated, and open. Arriving Mid-2015

until I saw this little tidbit from the latest draft of their certificate policy:

Copyright Notice Copyright © 2014 ISRG and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. This document is provided for the intended recipient’s review only. Do not redistribute this document, in part or in whole, without first obtaining prior written consent from ISRG. To request consent, contact ISRG at or write: Internet Security Research Group 331 E. Evelyn Ave. Mountain View, CA 94041

I really do hope that this copywrong notice extends only as far as the draft, and that they will liberate the certificate policy once it is finalized. How in the world can they claim to be free and open when they close off and proprietize one of their most important documents?

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Could someone please tell me how a federal judge can not only move against the will of the people of a state by repealing a state constitutional amendment that we overwhelmingly voted for, but can also strike off our books the law that has been in effect for many many years, which the constitutional amendment was written to uphold? Is no one aware of the fact that the repeal of the law that Amendment 1 upheld was never brought to a vote, nor was it even discussed, in our General Assembly, yet the law was effectively repealed by a single federal judge who happens to hold office in this state? I’m no political science or constitutional law scholar, but this just seems like an end run around the political process that we are said to hold in such high regard in this state and in this nation. So bills are no longer introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly, to become law when voted for and signed by the Governor. Instead, the federal court, and yes, even one single federal judge, has the power to make and even change or repeal laws, contrary to our state laws, even without the support of the Legislature, the Governor and the will of the people. So even the worldly system of government doesn’t work anymore. How broken does it need to get before people wake up and try to do something about it, assuming it’s not too late already?

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In related news, polygamy and consentual incest are still illegal in the entirety of the United States. Someone tell me how this possibly could make any sense at all? How is it legal for two men to obtain a marriage license, but it is not legal for a brother and a sister to be married? Why is it that two women can be legally married to each other, but 3 women or 2 men and a woman can’t? The ironic thing is that I’ve heard all kinds of talk about how love is love, and that the government should stay out of our business, but love is still not love when siblings can’t be recognized legally as being married, and the government is certainly in the people’s business when they can dictate that a woman can’t have multiple husbands or a man can’t have multiple wives. If so-called gay marriage is the law of the land, then we must by the same laws be granted the rights to have polyamorous and incestuous relationships recognized as marriage also, so long as all parties are in agreement and concent to being in such a domestic relationship. The idea that love is love can demand no less. It’s all or nothing. There can be no degrees here. I’m no judge, but I know that this is simply not right. Either the government has the power to dictate who and how many can be in a legally recognized marriage, or it has no power in these matters at all. There can be no middle ground. Either love is love and concent is concent, or the definition of marriage that has held ever since it wasn’t good for the man to be alone, and therefore God created a woman from him and for him, must remain immutable.

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Here’s a history lesson you won’t find in any schoolbook. Ultimately, Abraham Lincoln did free the slaves, but for what purpose? What was he really thinking, or what pressure was put on him to ultimately do the right thing? Did he suddenly find Jesus when he unconditionally freed the slaves, or did he have some other possibly sinister motive for such a sudden reversal, perhaps just out of spite, trying to hit the south where he knew it would hurt rather than actually doing what was right because it was right? There’s no doubt in my mind that God did use him to fulfill His will, but I remain skeptical of the idea that Lincoln actually did the right thing because he knew it was right, especially when reading this quote.

“You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”

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I just found out some very disturbing news. Even after a “major systems upgrade,” our bank is still running its online banking system from Microsoft Windows machines running the known to be insecure IIS web server. And I’ve been sending my login credentials to this system for years, and even making transfers between accounts and paying bills from this insecure online banking system. It’s easy to see that ssl encryption is no guarantee of security, especially when viruses can easily destroy and compromise sensative personal and financial information stored on the underlying operating system and web server infrastructure. I urge everyone to check the http headers and served files on your banking website, or the website of the bank you are thinking of doing business with in the future. If you see asp or aspx in the address bar in your browser, or if you see “Microsoft IIS” or anything similar in the http headers, run the other way, or don’t do your online banking from their website. Also, if this is your current bank, try to call or message them. Do your best to get someone on the phone or in an e-mail or secure message conversation who can determine policy at the bank, and try to convince them that their insecure online banking system could cause unintentional harm to their customers and their account information and other personal financial data. I would recommend convincing their IT department or whoever works with the online banking system to migrate to a Unix-like operating system such as Linux or FreeBSD. It is much easier to keep these systems up and running, and it is much easier to keep them properly secured against viruses and other malicious attempts to compromise personal data or even the underlying operating system.

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Thank God for these pastors and these churches! I’m not a pastor myself, but as a Christian, I stand firmly with these pastors and pray for the devine favor of God on their lives and on their churches. Thank you for saying almost exactly what I wrote about in my blog post last August, which was prompted by the public performance of “Same Love” during last year’s VMA Awards, and thank you for having the courage to take a stand for God and for what you believe.

Pastors from North Carolina, where we have a similar constitutional amendment, need to come together and set the record straight as well, especially since North Carolina is one of the southern states where the struggle for Civil Rights, that’s the capitalized Civil Rights, as in integration and racial equality, was most hard fought and most painful for those who were forced to endure the horrors and atrocities of racism and slavery. We must let the Church and God be our conscience in this matter, just as the Church and God were the conscience that initially sparked the Civil Rights Movement, and brought many great things to pass, even though the struggle is far from over, pushed into the background by those who would coopt today’s Civil Rights struggle and cheapen the fight for equality with distractions and false analogies.

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I just got a message on my WordPress dashboard that Markdown On Save Improved, a plugin I use quite a lot due to its ease of use and flexibility, will no longer be updated. The following message has been added to the description of the plugin on its wordpress.org page as well: “This plugin is deprecated. Use the much-better-supported and more-frequently-updated Markdown module in Jetpack, by the same author. This plugin will not receive any updates or support from here on out.”

Here’s the problem. I’ve looked at this Jetpack plugin, and it appears it does way more than I would ever need or even want, and it appears to rely quite heavily on third-party products and services to do many of the things it does, including some of the things I’m already using other plugins to do, such as e-mail subscriptions and social features, many of which I handle internally rather than using a third-party API, with the obvious exception of the social networking stuff, which communicates directly with the sites involved. If I wanted all kinds of third-party products and services, external API’s and bloat, I would still be using Tumblr as my primary blogging platform, rather than hosting my blog on my own. My entire reason for the move was to be able to host my blog myself and customize it exactly the way I want it, with only the features I need, and none I don’t. However, I feel that I’m being pushed more and more toward wordpress.com and Akismet, which although they are run by the same people who wrote WordPress, are still external products and services that perform functions I should be able to handle internally, either with the base WordPress code or with a stand-alone plugin that performs the functionality I need without an external API.

At this point, I have dismissed the notice on my dashboard, and will not be converting my posts to work with the Jetpack Markdown module. However, as WordPress gets future updates, there may eventually come a time where Markdown On Save Improved no longer works. I can only hope that by that time, someone will fork the code from this quite useful plugin, or just maintain what is already available, so that it can continue to be used without the need for a much bigger and less manageable plugin. Otherwise, I would hope that a better stand-alone Markdown plugin becomes available, if it isn’t already. I will be looking out for it.

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I just got a message on my WordPress dashboard that Markdown On Save Improved, a plugin I use quite a lot due to its ease of use and flexibility, will no longer be updated. The following message has been added to the description of the plugin on its wordpress.org page as well: “This plugin is deprecated. Use the much-better-supported and more-frequently-updated Markdown module in Jetpack, by the same author. This plugin will not receive any updates or support from here on out.”

Here’s the problem. I’ve looked at this Jetpack plugin, and it appears it does way more than I would ever need or even want, and it appears to rely quite heavily on third-party products and services to do many of the things it does, including some of the things I’m already using other plugins to do, such as e-mail subscriptions and social features, many of which I handle internally rather than using a third-party API, with the obvious exception of the social networking stuff, which communicates directly with the sites involved. If I wanted all kinds of third-party products and services, external API’s and bloat, I would still be using Tumblr as my primary blogging platform, rather than hosting my blog on my own. My entire reason for the move was to be able to host my blog myself and customize it exactly the way I want it, with only the features I need, and none I don’t. However, I feel that I’m being pushed more and more toward wordpress.com and Akismet, which although they are run by the same people who wrote WordPress, are still external products and services that perform functions I should be able to handle internally, either with the base WordPress code or with a stand-alone plugin that performs the functionality I need without an external API.

At this point, I have dismissed the notice on my dashboard, and will not be converting my posts to work with the Jetpack Markdown module. However, as WordPress gets future updates, there may eventually come a time where Markdown On Save Improved no longer works. I can only hope that by that time, someone will fork the code from this quite useful plugin, or just maintain what is already available, so that it can continue to be used without the need for a much bigger and less manageable plugin. Otherwise, I would hope that a better stand-alone Markdown plugin becomes available, if it isn’t already. I will be looking out for it.

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I just got a petition in my inbox today, stating that I should be concerned with the fact that Google reads my e-mail and uses it to sell targeted advertising. While I do think that reading my e-mail, even via computerized methods, and using it for targeted advertising is a bit shady at best, I just can’t convince myself to sign this one. The problem is not the wording of the petition, nor is it the idea that Google should stop reading e-mail and using it to show targeted advertising based on its content. Privacy is indeed a major concern for me, and under most circumstances, a petition like this would have gotten my signature immediately. My problem, however, is the fact that this specific petition didn’t originate from a group of concerned Gmail users, nor did it even originate from any consumer advocacy or similar type of organization that should be concerned with the privacy of its members. No, this Care2 petition lists its author as outlook.com which is of course a Microsoft website that redirects to a Microsoft Live account login page. I have to question Microsoft’s motives at this point, and even question the validity of their claim that Google is in fact reading my e-mail and using it to sell ads. While I’m sure Google does some shady stuff, Microsoft definitely does shady stuff as well, so I wouldn’t put it past them to do something as underhanded as putting a petition on Care2 that accuses their competition of violating my privacy. “Look here. See? we raised concerns about our competitor’s business practices that directly affect you, our prospective customers, even though we don’t give a care that our business practices leave a lot to be desired as well, and even though our competitor may or may not even be engaging in the evil business practices that we want to accuse them of doing.” So because of this, I refuse to sign this otherwise worthy-looking petition. I’m not about to sign anything that basically says that a company wants me to agree with them that their competitor is doing something wrong. That is unfair to me, it’s unfair to the competitor, and it certainly gives an already disreputable company an unfair advantage in the e-mail market which, I should add, is an area where Microsoft is definitely struggling, and has been for many years. It certainly does remind me of other ways Microsoft has attempted to grow its market share by trashing the competition, and I refuse to be a party to that kind of dirty dealing.

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Sonar 2014.1alpha3 is out

First of all, for some months now, I’ve been working alongside Jonathan Nadeau and the Manjaro team to redesign Sonar GNU/Linux around the Manjaro distribution, which is based on Arch Linux, adding ease of use, stability and a great out-of-the-box experience to the already great and venerable Arch Linux. I am pleased to announce that the redesigned Sonar 2014.1 has reached alpha3, and now includes the long-awaited talking login screen via gdm. It can be downloaded at the Sonar GNU/Linux SourceForge page. As always, it is available for both 32-bit (i686) and 64-bit (x86_64) systems.

TalkingArch gets a new team and a new website

In addition to my work with Sonar, I am very happy to be one of the new maintainers of TalkingArch, an unofficial respin of the Arch Linux live CD/USB image that adds speech and optional braille output so that blind and visually impaired users can perform eyes-free installations of Arch Linux. Chris Brannon, who faithfully maintained the TalkingArch iso since 2008, has named Kelly Prescott and myself as his successors, as he was no longer able to consistently maintain the project. This live image will still maintain consistency with the official install media as much as possible, but should now be synchronized more often, in time with the snapshots of the official install image. I am also providing hosting for the new TalkingArch website and the new support e-mail, as well as seeding the torrent for the iso file. Currently, we still have the iso from August 5, but we are planning to release the next build to coincide with the February Arch snapshot. 2014 will indeed be a great year for Linux, especially Arch and Arch-based distributions.

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I’ve been playing around with SimpleWebRTC.js and the very interesting-looking Talky website, which allows anyone to create a video chat room on-the-fly by entering it in a form or putting the name of the room at the end of the URL. I also looked at the SimpleWebRTC demo, because it seems to be a simpler version of Talky that I could use to get started. Apparently, something like this is extremely easy to implement, and can be set up in as little as 5 minutes. Sadly, it seems they were exagerating just a bit when they said it could be set up in 5 minutes.

SimpleWebRTC.js

According to the website, SimpleWebRTC.js is a very simple modular library that allows developers to get a very basic WebRTC application up and running quickly and easily. There is some very basic documentation on the front page of the site that shows just how easy it can be, and a link to fork it on GitHub. All good so far. So I figured it would be fun to put a copy on my vps and play with it there. But the HTML and JavaScript on the page for some reason didn’t work for me. No problem, I decided that just for testing purposes, I would rip the source from the demo page. After all, it works there, so it should work on my VPS with minimal modifications. No such luck. Every time I enter anything into the form that is presented on the page, it just loops back to the same page with the same form, unlike the demo, which reloads the page, attaches the room name entered from the form to the end of the URL and appears to start the WebRTC chat room.

SignalMaster

The SimpleWebRTC.js website does mention that if I’m planning to do anything other than development or testing, I need to set up my own signaling server. It recommends using a very small JavaScript library called SignalMaster. Fine, at this point, I’m thinking that my problems are caused by the fact that my copy of simplewebrtc.js is still configured to use the development signaling server that is provided for demo/testing purposes only, so I decided to try SignalMaster. And now I find an entirely new problem. I have read just about all there is to read about SignalMaster, which only has a GitHub page and a couple of very short blog posts around the internet, none of which tell me how I’m supposed to get this thing running as a server listening on a port. I did see something that mentioned that I may need node.js, but there were no instructions on how to get the server up and running. In the SignalMaster source tree, there are only 2 json files, a server.js file and the README.md file that shows up on GitHub, which contains very little other than a very short explanation of what it does.

Conclusion

I like the idea, and I like the fact that it’s open source, but it took less time to write this rather extensive blog post than it took to find out that there was no way I was going to be able to make SimpleWebRTC.js work on my server. So I guess since it took me several hours of messing with this thing only to find that something that is said to be usable within 5 minutes doesn’t work at all no matter what I try, and since there is too little documentation on how to make the signaling server run, I will have to table this project for now, and hope that the situation will improve with time.

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As some of my readers may be aware, I am a huge fan of Markdown, because it makes writing much easier, and because it is human-readable. After all, people have been writing e-mail using something very similar to Markdown syntax since before Markdown was created, so the transition is quite natural.

I never would have moved my blog to WordPress if not for the Markdown On Save Improved plugin, because I was quite accustomed to writing my posts using Markdown. A big thankyou goes out to Matt Wiebe for putting all the pieces and parts together that make this version of the plugin truly rock!

Now for the good stuff for everyone else. For the first time in it’s 4-year history, The Kyle File now supports Markdown in comments, thanks to Evan Solomon‘s GitHub-Flavored Markdown Comments plugin, so everyone who reads my posts can easily write comments using Markdown syntax. If you have been writing your comments in plain text or HTML, don’t panic, nothing has changed for you. This is just a third option that can make adding links, lists, headers and other nice formatting to comments much easier. Go ahead and try it out by adding a comment on this post. Have fun!

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